CHAPTER NINETEEN
A TRIP TO THE CITY
When Eva Dearman awoke on Monday morning in her little iron cot-bed in the orphanage dormitory, somehow she did not see things plain and unattractive, as they really were. There was such a joyous anticipation in her heart that even the dull gray morning seemed aglow. She met Amanda Brown in the hallway and gave her a sudden hug, as she exclaimed, “I have had the loveliest time, Mandy. Did you miss me just a little bit?”
Amanda clung to her friend, as she sobbed: “Oh, Eva, don’t go away and leave me again. It’s just like funerals all the time when you are gone. Everybody else is so horrid to me. I tried being nice, the way you asked me to, and then the girls said I was aping after you, and they called me Miss Dearman.”
“Well, it’s just a mean shame!” Eva cried, with flashing eyes. “How girls can take pleasure in being unkind is more than I can understand. But don’t cry, Amanda! There’s half an hour yet before classes; let’s run to the woods and back.”
All that day it was hard for Eva to keep her mind on her work, for had not her wonderful artist-friend said that she would call at the Home on Monday! And so Eva was continually expecting to be called to the office. Would Mrs. Friend allow her to accept the drawing-lessons? she wondered.
Never did a day pass more slowly, and, for the first time since she had been there, Eva’s recitations were poor, but the teacher, Miss Bently, loved Eva, and was very patient with her. At last there came a rap on the class-room door and Eva held her breath. Who would it be? Perhaps Mrs. Friend would bring Madge Peterson to visit the class-room, but it was only a little girl with a note. Miss Bently read it and then glanced up with a smile. She believed that she now understood her favorite’s mental preoccupation.
“You are to go to Mrs. Friend’s office, Eva,” she said, kindly. “You have a visitor.”
The girl’s face glowed as she went toward the door. In the office Madge Peterson was seated. She arose as Eva entered, and, taking both her hands, she exclaimed: “Eva, I have splendid news for you! Mrs. Friend is pleased with our plan, and you may come to the city next Saturday morning and spend the day with me.”
“Oh, Mrs. Friend!” Eva cried joyously. “How can I ever thank you!”
“It is Miss Peterson whom you must thank, Eva,” Mrs. Friend replied.
“I do indeed thank her,” the girl exclaimed, with shining eyes. “And I hope I shall become such a famous artist that she will feel repaid for her interest. Shall you be very much disappointed if I don’t, Miss Peterson?”
“Indeed I shall not,” Madge laughingly replied. “I never expect to acquire fame myself, but I do get a great deal of pleasure from my sketching, and now and then I am asked to do a bit of illustrating and so earn extra pin-money, or Roberty-Boberts money, I should say. Some day you must meet little Bob, Eva. You will just love him.”
Then Madge expressed a desire to look about the orphanage and the matron asked Eva to show her friend the building and the grounds. What a happy hour it was for that orphan girl! and Madge, who was patroness of another orphanage, took great interest in seeing how this one was conducted.
Then, arm in arm, these two friends sauntered to the front gate. There stood a little olive-green car, which Eva thought was the prettiest she had ever seen.
“I like it,” Madge exclaimed, “but Brother Everett makes fun of it. His car is as big a one as he could find, and when they stand together in the garage Everett says they look like a giant and a pigmy, so I have named my car Pigmy, and we are the best of comrades. Some day, Eva, you shall go riding with me.”
Then Madge was gone. She wanted to visit Adele’s mother and make further plans for Saturday.
Was ever a week so long? the orphan girl wondered, but at last Saturday dawned bright and sunny. Eva awakened with the feeling that something wonderful was going to happen, and then she remembered! Leaping from her little cot-bed, which was the last of a long row, she looked out of the open window and up at the sky. How gleaming and blue it was! and out in the orchard the birds were singing their happy morning-songs. Eva wished that she too might sing, but even then the dressing-bell was ringing, and the nineteen other orphans who slept in that dormitory were tumbling out of their beds.
“Good morning, Amanda,” Eva said softly to the girl who slept in the cot next her own.
“Good morning,” Amanda replied, but she turned quickly away. She did not want Eva to see that she had been crying in the night.
At breakfast the orphans were allowed to talk, and Eva chattered like a magpie, making every one near her bright and happy, but not once did she tell about her trip to the city, because she did not want the other girls to feel that she was having pleasures which they could not share.
When the orphans had gone about their Saturday-morning tasks, Eva went up to the dormitory to put on her pretty white dress. When she was ready to go, she slipped her mother’s picture out of its hiding-place and whispered, “Oh, mumsie, dear, everybody is so kind to your little girl. Aren’t you glad?”
Then down the stairs she skipped, and there was Adele Doring waiting for her in the hall.
“What do you think?” Adele exclaimed. “We have an invitation to ride into town with Bob Angel and Brother Jack. They were going in to see a ball game on the high-school campus, and mother said that we might ride in with them.”
“Will wonders never cease?” Eva said, joyously. “I adore riding in autos and I almost never have the chance.”
Mrs. Friend stepped out of her office and greeted Adele. Then she looked over her young charge, to see if all the buttons were in the right holes, for Eva was so excited that she could not keep her mind on ordinary things.
“Have you a clean handkerchief, dear?” Mrs. Friend asked. Eva felt in her pocket. It was empty. “I’ll run back and get one,” she said. “I won’t be half a jiffy.”
Up the stairs she fairly flew and into the dormitory she danced. Suddenly she stopped. She heard some one crying. On the bed next to her own a girl was lying, sobbing as though her heart would break. It was Amanda Brown. Eva flew to her friend, and, putting her arms about her, asked: “Mandy, dear, what is the matter? Has some one been mean, horrid, to you?”
“No-o!” sobbed the girl. “Oh, Eva, I thought you were gone! Please, please don’t let me spoil your day.”
“Mandy,” Eva said firmly, “tell me why you are crying! I shall stay here until you do.”
Amanda knew that Eva meant what she said, and so she replied brokenly, “It’s—it’s my birthday, Eva, and nobody cares.”
Tears rushed to Eva’s eyes, and she held her friend close. She remembered how lonely she had felt on her birthday, when she thought that nobody cared.
“I care, Amanda Brown,” Eva exclaimed sincerely. “You wait here a moment. I’ll be right back.” And before Amanda could prevent it, Eva had left the dormitory. Down the stairs she went more slowly, and the two watching from below wondered at her changed expression.
“Mrs. Friend,” Eva said, “I can’t go to the city! It is Amanda Brown’s birthday, and she will be so unhappy if I go away and leave her. I know how I felt when I thought that nobody cared about my birthday.”
“Oh, Mrs. Friend!” Adele exclaimed. “Couldn’t we take Amanda Brown with us? I know Miss Peterson would be so glad to have her.”
Mrs. Friend readily consented, so Eva hurried back to the dormitory with the news, and when Amanda tried to refuse, insisted that she would remain at home unless her friend would go with them.
In less time than it seemed possible, Eva had Amanda dressed in her Sunday best, and the three girls hurried down the gravelly walk to the gate. Bob Angel leaped to the ground and threw open the door of the car with a flourish. “Good morning, ladies,” he said. “Jack is your chauffeur and I am your footman.”
“My! What a grandness!” Adele laughingly exclaimed as the lad helped them into the car.
Then such a joyous ride as they had! They had to take off their broad-brimmed hats, and the fresh wind soon blew the tearstains from Amanda’s cheeks, and left there such a rosy color that the other two girls, looking at her, thought that she would be truly beautiful if only she was loved and made happy.